When Ugandan lawmakers introduced an anti-homosexuality bill in 2009, it called for the death penalty for "serial offenders." That legislation failed, but a new version was reintroduced in 2012 in an effort to further criminalize same-sex relations in a country where homosexuality is already illegal. The bills have drawn loud and widespread condemnation from much of the international community, particularly after the brutal death of openly gay activist Davdi Kato.
Filmmakers Katherine Fairfax-Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall gained access to Uganda's secretive LGBT community for their documentary film, Call Me Kuchu. The pair follow a group of gay women and men — derogatorily called "Kuchus" — lead by Kato, as he fights to repeal the country's anti-gay laws and as they rail against the ongoing, sometimes violent, persecution.
NPR's Neal Conan wraps up a two-part series on the American Film Institute's Silverdocs Film Festival with Malika Zouhali-Worrall, the producer and co-director of Call Me Kuchu, and one of the film's subjects, John "Long Jones" Abdallah Wambere.
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